Trump’s HHS nominee prioritized profits over patients

As Cabinet nominee Tom Price faces a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, a newly released trove of documents sheds further light on how he interacted as a congressman with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the massive agency he may soon oversee.

Letters provided by CMS after an open records request show that the Health and Human Services pick has repeatedly stepped up in favor of drug firms, device manufacturers and higher physician payments, leading some experts to question whether he would be a reliable advocate for the public’s health.

The documents reveal additional instances where Price, a doctor from Georgia, set aside his priority of budget discipline in favor of special medical interests, including by sending a letter endorsing a medical procedure that Medicare later decided not to pay for, pointing to weak evidence that it helped patients get better.

“He’s clearly shown in this case and in other ways allegiance to the corporate interest, but not to the patient interest,” said Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research, a nonpartisan think tank that has studied medical device safety[…]